psychologia, psicologia
and the transpersonal origins of psychology

A 1653 translation of J. de Back's "Discourse" makes the following statement

"I call the generall doctrine of man Anthropologie, the parts of which, I do ordain to be, according to this division, Psychologie, Somatologie, and Hmatologie, into the doctrine of the soul, bodie, and blood ...
Psychologie is a doctrine which searches out mans Soul, and the effects of it.

1678 (CUDWORTH Intell. Syst. I. iv. 597)

The Platonists thus distinguishing, betwixt and , the Essence of the Godhead, and the Distinct Hypostases or Personalities thereof. Ibid. v. 750 Humane Souls, Minds, and Personalities, being unquestionably Substantial Things and Really Distinct from Matter.

1851 HAWTHORNE Ho. Sev. Gables xi,

By its remoteness, it melts all the petty personalities, of which it is made up, into one broad mass of existence. 1895 W. H. HUDSON Spencer's Philos. 209 We cannot think of an infinite personality. Personality implies limitation, or it means nothing at all.

1680 R. CUDWORTH

"The vulgar psychology, or the now generally received way of philosophizing concerning the soul, doth either quite baffle and betray this liberty of will, or else render it absurd, ridiculous, or monstrous. "

so, then, what is Psychology if, in essence it is already and always has been Transpersonal ...

I wonder how many psychologists today would be comfortable with this transpersonal definition .. or even the etymology of what they call "Science" ...

In modern usage, the signification of psychology has broadened to include

(a) the scientific study of the mind as an entity and in its relationship to the physical body, based on observation of the behaviour and activity aroused by specific stimuli; and

(b) the study of the behaviour of an individual or of a selected group of individuals when interacting with the environment or in a given social context.

(c) experimental psychology, the experimental study of the responses of an individual to stimuli

(d) social psychology, the study of the interaction between an individual and the social group to which he belongs.

psychologia .. beginnings of psychology

Greek philosophers (philos -- love; sophos -- wisdom --- hence, lovers of wisdom) were inquiring into the nature of the psyche thousands of years ago. Modern Latin is merely the transliteration of the Greek ...

Psyche (Greek) soul, mind
Logos (Greek) word (becomes "study")
Somatos (Greek) body
Hematos (Greek) blood
Scientia (Latin) knowledge, knowing

Psychology is said to have begun, in the modern Latin form psychologia (psicologia ), in Germany in the 16th century.

Volkmann von Volkmar, (Lehrbuch der Psychologie, 1875, I. 38) quotes Melanchthon use of the word as title of a prelection, and the Psychologie was also used by J. T. Freigius in 1575

Its introduction into literature came in 1590-97, by Goclenius of Marburg and his pupil Casmann (psicologiaanthropologica. sive animæ humanæ doctrina).

Psychologia and Somatotomia or Somatologia as the two parts of Anthropologia, and in this sense the word is found frequently in the medical writers of the 17th c., as in Blancard's Lexicon Medicum, 1679, and in French in Dionis, Anatomie de l'Homme, 1690.

The first English usage appears in a 1693 is translation of Blancard. In French, according to Hatzfeld-Darmesteter, it had been used in the 16th c. by Taillepied in the sense of 'the science of the apparition of spirits'.

Thomas Govan (Ars Sciendi sive Logica, 1682), divided Physica or Natural Science into the domains of

Pneumatologia the science of spirits or spiritual beings,

Somatologia or Physiologia the science of material bodies
 

Pneumatologia contained the three subdivisions,
   - Theologia the doctrine of God
   - Angelographia (incl. Demonologia)
     the doctrine of angels (and devils)
   - Psychologia the doctrine of human souls.

Modern usage begins with Chr. von Wolff's psicologiaEmpirica (1732); psicologiaRationalis 1734); followed by Hartley in England 1748, and Bonnet in France 1755.